LANGENES, Barent.
[Early second edition of this important pocket atlas][Caert-Thresoor Inhoudende de tafelen des gantsche Werelts Landen...]Middleburg: Langenes, 1599. Oblong 8vo, modern vellum gilt, new endpapers; two parts in one; title lacking, pp. (xiii) (with frontis of Magellan's ship Victoria) + 462; pp. 196 (lacking pp. 193-4, incl. map 'Ins Vaygates' + (2) (table of maps, lacking 2pp?). Light damp staining to lower right throughout, loss to right hand margin of a few maps, and several with nicks and tearsAn early second edition of the Caert-Thresoor, a state between Koeman's Lan 1 & Lan 2, mentioned as a variant of Lan2. It still lacks the maps of Africa and America in Part II, yet having the latitude scales added to most of the maps, and including the maps engraved by English engraver Benjamin Wright. The text of the Caert-Thresoor was written by Langenes and the maps mostly engraved by Pieter van den Keere and Jodocus Hondius, although here the maps of Java, Sumatra, Madagascar and St Helena have been replaced with ones by Wright. Later editions had text by Petrus Bertius, and are much more familiar. The first part of the atlas contains two maps of the world by Jodocus Hondius, with maps of the continents and European countries; the second part covers the rest of the world (with maps of Scio, Rhodes and Cyprus as they were part of the Ottoman dominions). A rare atlas.KOEMAN: Lan 2, 'This variant obviously represents the the oldest version of the second edition'.
[Ref: 11659]
£12,500.00
($15,888 • €14,175 rates)

ORTELIUS, Abraham.
[A fine example of Ortelius's pocket atlas]Abrege du Theatre d'Ortelius, Contentant la description des principales parties & regions du Monde, representees en petites Cartes, & illustrees de sommaires expositions. Derniere edition, corrigee en plusiers lieux, & augmentee de quelques Cartes nouvelles.Antwerp: Jan Baptiste Vrients, 1602, French text edition. Oblong 8vo, contemporary gilt-stamped vellum, all edges gilt. Two parts in one; title with vignette hemisphere, arms of Albert & Isabella of Austria, pp. (vii), view of the Escorial and 120 maps, each with a page of text, + pp (iv)(approbation and index); with 'Addition', pp. (iii) 5 maps with 1pp text, + (i)(adieu). Faint toning and a little damp staining.A charming pocket atlas, dedicated to the co-sovereigns of the Habsburg Netherlands between 1598 and 1621. The so-called 'Epitome' was the Europe's first pocket atlas, with maps reduced from Ortelius's Theatrum by Philip Galle. First published in 1577, the Epitome increased in size as new maps were added to the Theatrum and then reduced by Galle. In 1601 the plates for both the Theatrum and Epitome were bought by Vrients, who added new double-hemisphere world and celestial maps, neither after Ortelius.KOEMAN: Ort 60.
[Ref: 19346]
£7,500.00
($9,533 • €8,505 rates)

PORCACCHI, Tomaso.
[Porcacchi's Isolario]L'Isole piu Famose del Mondo Descritte da Thomaso Porcacchi da Castiglione Arrentino e intagliate da Girolamo Porro Con l'Aggiunta di molte Isole.Venice: Heirs of Simon Galignani, 1604. Folio, rebound in full vellum; pp. (xxii)+211; engraved title, 48 engraved maps in text, numerous woodcut emblems. Complete. Some restoration to edges of pages, with tip of the title plate affected.An example of the fourth edition (of seven) of one of the last notable isolario (atlas of islands). It was originally published in 1572 with only 30 maps, finely engraved by Girolamo Porro. The second edition of 1576 was expanded to 47 maps; this edition was the first to have the map of Istria included, the final addition to the atlas.
[Ref: 18695]
£4,500.00
($5,720 • €5,103 rates)

CAMDEN, William.
[The First Edition of Camden's 'Britannia' with maps]Britannia, sive Florentissimorum Regnorum Angliæ, Scotiæ, Hiberniæ, et Insularem adiacentium ex intima antiquate, Chorographica descriptio: Nunc postremò recognita, plurimis locis magna accessione adaucta, & Chartis Chorographicis illustrata.London: George Bishop & John Norton, 1607. First Folio Edition. 18th century full calf gilt, maroon morocco title label, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers; pp. (xiv) + 860 + (230) (corrigenda and indexes); engraved title page and 57 maps (all but two double-page), nine plates and numerous woodcut illustrations in text Some old ink mss on title pages and dedication, slight damp staining at edges of the first hundred pages. A few maps slightly trimmed by the binder.The 'Britannia', a topographical and historical survey written by William Camden (1551-1623), was the first chorographical survey of Great Britain and Ireland. First published in 1586, this sixth edition was the first folio edition and the first to contain maps, reduced versions of those by Christopher Saxton and John Norden, engraved by William Kip and William Hole. The seventh edition, 1610, was the first to be translated into English. Camden's text was extremely influential: both Blaeu and Jansson used it in the county atlases. A robust example, with stong, clean paper.SKELTON: County Atlases, 5.
[Ref: 19663]
£12,000.00
($15,252 • €13,608 rates)

KOEHLER, Johann David.
[Atlases of the ancient and modern worlds]Descriptio orbis antiqui in XLIV tabulis exhibita...; Atlas Manualis Scholasticus et Itinerarius...Nuremberg: Christoph Weigel, 1720. Folio, full panelled calf, spine in compartments, gilt, with morocco title label; Part 1: engr. title & index, 44 double-page maps, as called for; Part II; engr. title & index, 16 double-page maps, as called for, all maps in full original colour.Two atlases bound together. The first is an atlas of the ancient world, with maps of the countries decorated with illustrations of old coins; the second is a modern atlas, with maps of the world, continents and European countries.
[Ref: 11660]
£8,500.00
($10,804 • €9,639 rates)

BELLIN, Jacques-Nicolas.
[The atlas volume from Prevost's 'Histoire Generale des Voyages'][Untitled atlas.]Paris, c.1775. 4to, contemporary half calf gilt; 73 engraved maps, all but 7 folding, with a folding letterpress plate.A fine, clean example of the atlas volume of a posthumous edition to Abbé Antoine François Prévost d'Exiles's 'Histoire Generale des Voyages'. It contains a large planisphere world map, 10 maps of Africa, 22 of Asia, 31 of the Americas, 6 of Arctic Europe, 4 plates relating to Cook in the Pacific, including a letterpress comparison of languages. Begun in 1746, this edition has been extended to cover the first two voyages of Captain Cook to the South Pacific. The world map is dated 1748 but shows Cook's mapping of New Zealand and New South Wales; the last map is Cook's map of the South Hemisphere engraved by Robert Bénard for the French edition of Cook's Second Voyage, published 1778.
[Ref: 19666]
£2,900.00
($3,686 • €3,289 rates)

BOOKS

MACROBIUS.
[An important Classical geography with an early world map]Macrobii Ambrosii Aurelii Theodosii, Viri Consularis, et illustris, In Somnium Scipionis, Lib. II. Saturnaliorum, Lib. VII. Ex uarijs, ac uetustissimis codicibus recogniti, & aucti.Lyons: Sebastian Gryphius, 1556. 8vo, contemporary vellum, with blind-stamped illustrated cecoration; two works in one; title with printer's device, pp. 177, with woodcut map, five diagrams & two initials; & pp.178-567, five initials, + (73) (index). Ink collector's stamp and small label on title page.Two works by Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, written in the early 5th century. 'In Somnium Scipionis' is a commentary on Cicero's 'The Dream of Scipio', the final part of his 'Republic'. In a fictional dream, the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus has a cosmic vision in which the universe is made up nine celestial rings, and he hears the 'music of the spheres'. He then sees the climate belts of Earth, with the Antipodes separated from the known world by a region of fire (Perusta). In this commentary, Macrobius interprets these visions, with diagrams to illustrate the theories. The original version of his map, first printed 1483, was important as one of the first maps to show the world as a globe, and for showing an Antipodes to counterbalance the land in the Northern Hemisphere. When this edition was published the 'Perusta' theory was controversial: as the Bible stated that the whole world was re-populated by the sons of Noah there could be no unreachable Antipodes. The 'Saturnalia' is an account of a banquet held during the holiday of the Saturnalia, and the discussions of the guests on various subjects, both historical and philosophical. The importance of the work is the quotations taken from earlier authors, including Seneca and Plutarch, often from texts now lost. The collector's stamp reads'Bibl. Bernhard Vrat' (Vratislavia - Wrocław).See SHIRLEY: World 13.
[Ref: 19652]
£1,350.00
($1,716 • €1,531 rates)